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Файл:Palliser novels. The Duke’s Children I
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ANTHONY
TROLLOPE
THE DUKE’S
CHILDREN
VOLUME I
Москва
T8 RUGRAM
2019
УДК 82
ББК 84(0)
Anthony Trollope
Palliser novels. The Duke’s Children · I / A. Trollope. – М. : Т8
Издательские технологии / RUGRAM, 2019. – 434 с. – (Original)
ISBN 978-5-521-08367-1
Anthony Trollope (1815 – 1882) was an English novelist of
the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, which revolves around the imaginary county of Barsetshire. “The Duke’s
Children” is the sixth and final novel in another famous series,
“The Palliser Novels,” also known as the Parliamentary Novels.
Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium and former Prime
Minister of England, is widowed and wracked by grief. Struggling
to adapt to life without his beloved Lady Glencora, he works hard
to guide and support his three adult children. Palliser soon discovers, however, that his own plans for them are very different from
their desires.
УДК 82
ББК 84(0)
BIC FC
BISAC FIC004000
© T8 RUGRAM, оформление, 2019
ISBN 978-5-521-08367-1 © Т8 Издательские технологии, 2019
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I...................................................5
CHAPTER II................................................16
CHAPTER III ...............................................29
CHAPTER IV............................................... 38
CHAPTER V................................................48
CHAPTER VI............................................... 62
CHAPTER VII ..............................................73
CHAPTER VIII .............................................83
CHAPTER IX ...............................................94
CHAPTER X ...............................................106
CHAPTER XI ..............................................116
CHAPTER XII .............................................126
CHAPTER XIII ............................................137
CHAPTER XIV ............................................142
CHAPTER XV .............................................155
CHAPTER XVI ............................................167
CHAPTER XVII ...........................................175
CHAPTER XVIII ..........................................187
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
CHAPTER XIX.............................................197
CHAPTER XX .............................................207
CHAPTER XXI.............................................218
CHAPTER XXII............................................226
CHAPTER XXIII...........................................239
CHAPTER XXIV...........................................248
CHAPTER XXV............................................258
CHAPTER XXVI...........................................269
CHAPTER XXVII..........................................284
CHAPTER XXVIII .........................................291
CHAPTER XXIX ...........................................303
CHAPTER XXX ............................................313
CHAPTER XXXI ...........................................323
CHAPTER XXXII ..........................................335
CHAPTER XXXIII .........................................347
CHAPTER XXXIV .........................................361
CHAPTER XXXV ..........................................370
CHAPTER XXXVI .........................................383
CHAPTER XXXVII ........................................390
CHAPTER XXXVIII .......................................400
CHAPTER XXXIX .........................................410
CHAPTER XL..............................................421
CHAPTER I
WHEN THE DUCHESS WAS
DEAD
No one, probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in
the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when
the Duchess died. When this sad event happened he had
ceased to be Prime Minister. During the first nine months after he had left office he and the Duchess remained in England. Then they had gone abroad, taking with them their three
children. The eldest, Lord Silverbridge, had been at Oxford,
but had had his career there cut short by some more than ordinary youthful folly, which had induced his father to agree
with the college authorities that his name had better be taken
off the college books, — all which had been cause of very great
sorrow to the Duke. The other boy was to go to Cambridge;
but his father had thought it well to give him a twelvemonth’s
run on the Continent, under his own inspection. Lady Mary,
the only daughter, was the youngest of the family, and she
also had been with them on the Continent. They remained
the full year abroad, travelling with a large accompaniment of
tutors, lady’s-maids, couriers, and sometimes friends. I do not
know that the Duchess or the Duke had enjoyed it much; but
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ANTHONY TROLLOPE
the young people had seen something of foreign courts and
much of foreign scenery, and had perhaps perfected their
French. The Duke had gone to work at his travels with a full
determination to create for himself occupation out of a new
kind of life. He had studied Dante, and had striven to arouse
himself to ecstatic joy amidst the loveliness of the Italian
lakes. But through it all he had been aware that he had failed.
The Duchess had made no such resolution, — had hardly, perhaps, made any attempt; but, in truth, they had both
sighed to be back among the war-trumpets. They had both
suffered much among the trumpets, and yet they longed to
return. He told himself from day to day, that though he had
been banished from the House of Commons, still, as a peer,
he had a seat in Parliament, and that, though he was no longer a minister, still he might be useful as a legislator. She, in
her career as a leader of fashion, had no doubt met with some
trouble, — with some trouble but with no disgrace; and as
she had been carried about among the lakes and mountains,
among the pictures and statues, among the counts and countesses, she had often felt that there was no happiness except in
that dominion which circumstances had enabled her to
achieve once, and might enable her to achieve again — in
the realms of London society.
Then, in the early spring of 187 — , they came back to
England, having persistently carried out their project, at any
rate in regard to time. Lord Gerald, the younger son, was at once
sent up to Trinity. For the eldest son a seat was to be found in
the House of Commons, and the fact that a dissolution of Parliament was expected served to prevent any prolonged sojourn
6
THE DUKE’S CHILDREN
abroad. Lady Mary Palliser was at that time nineteen, and her
entrance into the world was to be her mother’s great care
and great delight. In March they spent a few days in London,
and then went down to Matching Priory. When she left town
the Duchess was complaining of cold, sore throat, and debility.
A week after their arrival at Matching she was dead.
Had the heavens fallen and mixed themselves with
the earth, had the people of London risen in rebellion with
French ideas of equality, had the Queen persistently declined to comply with the constitutional advice of her ministers, had a majority in the House of Commons lost its influence in the country, — the utter prostration of the bereft
husband could not have been more complete. It was not only
that his heart was torn to pieces, but that he did not know
how to look out into the world. It was as though a man should
be suddenly called upon to live without hands or even arms.
He was helpless, and knew himself to be helpless. Hitherto
he had never specially acknowledged to himself that his wife
was necessary to him as a component part of his life. Though
he had loved her dearly, and had in all things consulted her
welfare and happiness, he had at times been inclined to think
that in the exuberance of her spirits she had been a trouble
rather than a support to him. But now it was as though all
outside appliances were taken away from him. There was no
one of whom he could ask a question.
For it may be said of this man that, though throughout
his life he had had many Honourable and Right Honourable
friends, and that though he had entertained guests by the score,
and though he had achieved for himself the respect of all good
7
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
men and the thorough admiration of some few who knew him,
he had hardly made for himself a single intimate friend — except that one who had now passed away from him. To her he
had been able to say what he thought, even though she would
occasionally ridicule him while he was declaring his feelings.
But there had been no other human soul to whom he could
open himself. There were one or two whom he loved, and perhaps liked; but his loving and his liking had been exclusively
political. He had so habituated himself to devote his mind and
his heart to the service of his country, that he had almost risen
above or sunk below humanity. But she, who had been essentially human, had been a link between him and the world.
There were his three children, the youngest of whom was
now nearly nineteen, and they surely were links! At the first
moment of his bereavement they were felt to be hardly more
than burdens. A more loving father there was not in England,
but nature had made him so undemonstrative that as yet they
had hardly known his love. In all their joys and in all their
troubles, in all their desires and all their disappointments,
they had ever gone to their mother. She had been conversant
with everything about them, from the boys’ bills and the girl’s
gloves to the innermost turn in the heart and the disposition of
each. She had known with the utmost accuracy the nature of
the scrapes into which Lord Silverbridge had precipitated himself, and had known also how probable it was that Lord Gerald
would do the same. The results of such scrapes she, of course,
deplored; and therefore she would give good counsel, pointing out how imperative it was that such evil-doings should be
avoided; but with the spirit that produced the scrapes she fully
8
THE DUKE’S CHILDREN
sympathised. The father disliked the spirit almost worse than
the results; and was therefore often irritated and unhappy.
And the difficulties about the girl were almost worse to
bear than those about the boys. She had done nothing wrong.
She had given no signs of extravagance or other juvenile misconduct. But she was beautiful and young. How was he to
bring her out into the world? How was he to decide whom she
should or whom she should not marry? How was he to guide
her through the shoals and rocks which lay in the path of such
a girl before she can achieve matrimony?
It was the fate of the family that, with a world of acquaintance, they had not many friends. From all close connection
with relatives on the side of the Duchess they had been dissevered by old feelings at first, and afterwards by want of any
similitude in the habits of life. She had, when young, been
repressed by male and female guardians with an iron hand.
Such repression had been needed, and had been perhaps salutary, but it had not left behind it much affection. And then
her nearest relatives were not sympathetic with the Duke.
He could obtain no assistance in the care of his girl from that
source. Nor could he even do it from his own cousins’ wives,
who were his nearest connections on the side of the Pallisers. They were women to whom he had ever been kind, but to
whom he had never opened his heart. When, in the midst of
the stunning sorrow of the first week, he tried to think of all
this, it seemed to him that there was nobody.
There had been one lady, a very dear ally, staying in
the house with them when the Duchess died. This was Mrs.
Finn, the wife of Phineas Finn, who had been one of the Duke’s
9
ANTHONY TROLLOPE
colleagues when in office. How it had come to pass that Mrs.
Finn and the Duchess had become singularly bound together
has been told elsewhere. But there had been close bonds, — so
close that when the Duchess on their return from the Continent had passed through London on her way to Matching, ill at the time and very comfortless, it had been almost
a thing of course, that Mrs. Finn should go with her. And as she
had sunk, and then despaired, and then died, it was this woman who had always been at her side, who had ministered to
her, and had listened to the fears and the wishes and hopes she
had expressed respecting the children.
At Matching, amidst the ruins of the old Priory, there is
a parish burying-ground, and there, in accordance with her
own wish, almost within sight of her own bedroom-window,
she was buried. On the day of the funeral a dozen relatives
came, Pallisers and M’Closkies, who on such an occasion were
bound to show themselves, as members of the family. With
them and his two sons the Duke walked across to the graveyard, and then walked back; but even to those who stayed
the night at the house he hardly spoke. By noon on the following day they had all left him, and the only stranger in
the house was Mrs. Finn.
On the afternoon of the day after the funeral the Duke
and his guest met, almost for the first time since the sad event.
There had been just a pressure of the hand, just a glance of
compassion, just some murmur of deep sorrow, — but there
had been no real speech between them. Now he had sent
for her, and she went down to him in the room in which he
commonly sat at work. He was seated at his table when she
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